I Gotta Move

I'm a creature of routine. Every morning, I pretty much know what I'm going to do. And for 13 of the past 15 years, that morning routine has included driving to Marblehead to go to work. It's an 8-mile drive that takes about 30 minutes because of the twists and turns along the way from Beverly and through Salem on my way to Mhead. There's no quick, direct way to get there. This is New England. That's just the way it is.

Tomorrow, my routine will change. I'm still working at the same company, but we've moved to Danvers, which is the next town over. My commute will be a scant 8-10 minutes on back roads, over almost before it begins. And really, a 25- to 30-minute commute isn't that bad, especially when you consider what some folks have to do each day. When I was working at Webnoize in Cambridge, I was commuting more than an hour each way between commuter rail, subway and walking. After doing that for a few years, going back to Marblehead was a blessing. But still, after so many years of the same commute to the same crappy old building, this is a welcome change.

Our offices were spread out in an old warehouse building that had a leaky roof, mold-laden walls and a parking lot that flooded regularly. We're moving to a relatively new office park; the offices and cubicles were built in the last few months. Alas, the biggest adjustment for me will be going from having my own office to being in a cube. It won't be a total shock, because I spent eight years of my career working in newsrooms that had no walls whatsoever. But it has been nine years since the last one, so this will take some getting used to.

I'm not complaining, though. Change is good. I'm looking forward to a new routine, in a new town, new building, etc. I was in my last office for six years and it was amazing how much crap piled up. Just files and junk I never needed. I ended up tossing nearly all of it. It was pretty liberating. I'll certainly miss the privacy and the wall space, but at the same time it'll be a whole new adventure. Well, sort of new. I'll still be doing the same job, just in a different location.

I'll also have to come up with new running routes and find a new gym to work out in. There's a small gym in the office park with showers, but not much in the way of equipment. Again, a new adventure. It's going to be weird. But weird can be good, man.